March 18, 2008 Presidential Candidate Barack Obama gave an entitled speech “A More Perfect Union”. Due to all the commotion and disturbance with his reverend Jeremiah Wright and his very harsh comments he made during his sermon were made YouTube videos. He explains his thoughts in the use of a very soft tone to clean up this mess and to bring this union together as one. “I choose to run president at this moment in history because I believe deeply that we cannot solve the challenges of our time unless we solve them together.” As he is using these strong and powerful words of diction to convince America and to open there eyes to see at this point of time he can and he will get the job done. With the help of everybody coming together as a powerful, …show more content…
We will never be able to come together and solve challenges. Challenges such as health care, education, and to find a job for every American.” As he said these words he got his words across. Stating the truth that America does not want to hear or face by using paradox. When he said “if we simply retreat to our respective corners” he used that as symbolism. In my eyes I see that as using corners as a symbol of us not doing anything about our problems or issues, we simply go our separate ways and never take the effort to come out our corners and solve this issue we have been dealing with for centuries. We just sit back and never have a say or put in a word, we never take the step to do something about it. Obama is trying to get people to realize it’s not worth keeping quiet, get involved stand up for what you believe and make this country great. He made it clear that we may not look the same or we may not come from the same place but we all want to move in the same direction, which is forward. Nobody wants to move backwards in life. His story is he is he's a son of a black man and a white woman. He was raised by a white woman and a white man which was his grandparents. He been to some of the best schools and has lived in the poorest areas. He's married to black woman and has two beautiful daughters. That’s his …show more content…
That has never stopped Barrack Obama from running for president or changed how he felt about our nation as a whole. Jeremiah wright has never influenced Obama and he has never agreed to the harsh things he has ever said. “The profound mistake of reverend wright’s sermons is not that he spoke about racism in our society. It’s that he spoke as is our society was static; as if no progress has been made; as if the country a country that has made it possible for one of his own members to run for the highest office in the land and build a coalition of White and Black , Latino , Asian , rich , poor , young and old . Is still irrevocably bound to a tragic past. As he used this saying by expressing symbolism in a way where it has not gotten any better. Just the same thing and replying over and over again. No matter what the reverend had said or spoken about, Obama is far from racist and he did not agree or understand why he said the statement on how our country is unstable. He wants America to know that we can achieve greatness, but we will have to let go all of the negative vibes, the negative remarks and most importantly the past. Obama is a black man wanting to come in the office and make a better place for all races to live in, not worrying about their background or where they have come from is a wonderful thing. That had a big effect on America and with all he has
He talks about how the emancipation is very important to us African Americans, but to other white people it was just a speech because it did not really involve them, so they really just did not care because it was not their history. As Americans, I feel we share the same history because it was just not the blacks that got everything passed for them, but it was also the whites because we all played a separate part with it. When issues like this come up I just look back on the elections of my president Obama. Every one said that us as African Americans we got him into office both times, but if the whole black population would of voted just for Obama he would not have won.... ...
In 2008, democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama gave a speech, now named “A More Perfect Union”, in response to the controversy over his pastor, Jeremiah Wright, making some very racist remarks against whites and accusing the United States of bringing on the September 11 attacks by spreading terrorism. In his speech, Obama uses many rhetorical strategies including repetition, parallelism, allusion, and metaphors in order to make his statement that, regardless of race, the American people need to work together side by side as one in this time of need to achieve the same goal— achieving a better, more perfect union of America. Near the beginning of his speech, Obama declares, speaking of the U.S.A, that “This nation is more than the sum of its parts.” This is a metaphor meaning that the nation forms a stronger combination of people than you would expect by looking at each individual person. He uses this metaphor to explain that an individual will not be able to make much of a difference towards improving America, but if many people work together they can achieve great things and actually make changes that help solve some of the problems our country faces today.
Finally, President Obama calls for action. He reminds us, through anaphora, that “our journey is not complete” until we are all equal and more opportunistic, per-se. Obama tells us that that is our task, alluding to the Declaration of Independence, to “make these words, rights, these values of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness real for every American” is a task that we will all go through together as one to achieve for all. Concluding his speech, the president reminds us that we are the hope; we ARE the change.
Roy Peter Clark, author of “A More Perfect Union”: Why It Worked, takes a stance on President Barack Obama’s speech while analyzing it. President Barack Obama delivered a speech titled “A More Perfect Union.” His speech focused on the prominent issue of racism in America. In this article, Clark talks about President Obama’s known power and brilliance. Clark makes references and comparisons to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and W.EB. DuBois. “A More Perfect Union” features writing techniques that makes the message more defined and effective. President Obama utilizes four closely related rhetorical strategies. Clark broadly explains the purpose of the rhetorical strategies. Allusion, parallelism, two-ness, and autobiography helped to shape President Obama’s speech that that was meant to create
He mentions the very recent violence that occurred in Selma, Alabama; where African Americans were attacked by police while preparing to march to Montgomery to protest voting rights discrimination. Without mentioning this violent event that occurred a week prior, there would not be much timeliness to his argument, and it wouldn’t have been as effective. The timeliness of his argument gave the speech a lot more meaning, and it heightened the emotions of many who heard the address. He is appealing to the emotions of many American people, both Congressmen and ordinary citizens, to encourage them to support his cause. He reminds us of all of the Americans around the world that are risking their lives for our freedom. He refers to them as “guardians of our liberty.” He also address the problem as the whole nation should be concerned not just the north, the south, or the African American
At the time of this speech, Barack Obama is running for the Democratic Presidential candidate, as well as being called into question when his former pastor publicly accused the government of committing hateful acts against black Americans. He addresses the American public, then tries to persuade them to recognize that he understands both the white Americans and the black Americans. He uses ‘we’ and ‘us’ to show that he truly views the people as one as opposed to various separate groups, “. we cannot solve the challenges of our time unless we solve them together, unless we perfect our union by understanding that we may have different stories, but we hold common hopes; that we may not look the same and may not have come from the same place, but we all want to move in the same direction.”
In “A More Perfect Union”, Obama asked the audience to view themselves through the eyes of the others (Terrill 371). Instead of imposing a moral superiority of one side of the audience like Lincoln did or telling the audience to ignore the diversity, Obama asked the people to embrace their differences and acknowledge the others. In referring to the perspective of black people, he said, “A lack of economic opportunity among black men and the shame and frustration that came from not being able to provide for one's family contributed to the erosion of black families...” Meanwhile, to show how some white people might feel, he narrated, “...when they're told that their fears about crime in urban neighborhoods are somehow prejudice, resentment builds over time.” By juxtaposing two different perspectives, Obama tried to ask for agreement that people’s anxiety over racial problems is
Obama, a major symbol for the Black community, is not exclusive to Black people, like Michelle Obama would’ve been. He belongs to the White community, to the ‘nowhere man’ community, to the immigrant community. Coates himself sees himself as first and formost a Black man. Moreover, perhaps that this makeup challeneges Obama in understanding how to elevate Black America, because it is the part of him that is the farthest away. If anything, Iyer described it best. Obama, while being able to appeal to a wide vareity of people, is like a nonaligned nation. Thus for the average Black man, the appeal is not as bright to others, and the identification can only resignate so
We may not have come from the same place, but we all want to move in the same direction. Barack Obama’s speech “A More Perfect Union” (Nov. 17, 2008) captivates our nation with its thought out structure of the division and inequality in America. Obama successfully used allusion and repetition. Along with personal anecdotes to identify with the audience.
An overwhelming message that Obama mentions throughout the book is the idea that America can offer hope to anyone from any background; and to make sure that every person gets equal opportunity, a couple governmental changes are needed. Many times in the text he says “a new kind of politics, one that can excavate and build upon those shared understandings that pull us together as Americans,” (Obama 9). He continuously describes Abraham Lincoln as an ideal example of this quote. Lincoln, having only two years of Congressional experience, was able to become president and lead the country through som...
He uses allusion and repetition of words to prove his points about racial discrimination. His main goal is for the country to stay united and put discrimination aside, and continue the path of the ones who came before us. Obama alludes to the civil war by saying,” continue the long march” which illustrates the march that the north did to the south to stop race discrimination, as well as the fact how the north opposed with slavery and wanted to make south stop (1). The other device he uses in his speech was the repetition of words by using the word “more” to express his main goal and focus. Although the country is so called “free” his main goal is still to improve America in every way possible and put race discrimination completely aside. In the speech, he expresses his tone by saying,” more just, more equal, more free, more caring, and more prosperous America.” Which goes to the fact that he is trying to even improve America more in every way possible. If we improve our country even more, then we will not be having any issues in our
After his former preacher, Jeremiah Wright, gave such exigence for this discussion by making claims that the U.S. government treated black people harshly, Obama was pretty much forced to act. And with great credence and rhetoric, he did. The soon to be president, and also the first African American man to be president, first sets grounds for his speech by inserting himself into the context of the racial history of America, creating the modern-day setting of a war that is centuries in age. He then appealed to pathos by bringing light to his audience with examples of racial corruption and inequality to highlight the huge need for unity and change. And finally, he capitalized on these sentiments by appealing to ethos to advocate methods of change. With the great success of this historic and rhetorical speech, Obama assumed a new podium in November of that same exact year, but this time, to accept his election as the President of the United
“A More Perfect Union” was delivered by Barack Obama on March 18, 2008. At the time her gave the speech he was senator and running in the president election. Obama responded to his former pastor Jeremiah Wright, and also discussed the issue with race in America. This problem is important to us as a whole, because we went through plenty of racism in the past. He wants the prevent those incidents from according again. He did an excellent job using rhetoric tools to support his beliefs, which led to a successful election.
In November 2008 Barack Obama became the first African American US president in the history of USA. Obama’s victoy speech was delivered in Grant Park Chicago Illinois on November 4, 2008. His election as the first African American president caused many reactions including sceptcism, criticism but also hope. The given speech serves to emphasize and re-enforces his message of unity and motivates the listeners to share the hope for a common future by informibg them about his future plans. To increase the power of his speech, he uses a number of rhetorical devices such as ethos, pathos and tricolon.
In a quotation by Barack Obama on November 4, 2008, he says “That is the true genius of America-that America can change. Our union can be perfected. And what we have already achieved gives us hope for what we can and must achieve tomorrow”. Obama's inauguration speech mirrors the ideas expressed by that quote. Barack Obama's message in his speech is that through hope and change, we can pull the country out of recession, out of turmoil, and out of any difficult tasks we'll have ahead of us. What we have achieved shows that we can achieve it again, and the only reason these feats were achieved was because we were one nation working together. Obama successfully incorporate rhetoric into his speech to make it emotional, believable, and logical. His speech is a great representation of a well written rhetorical essay.